


Give A Hand To Me And My Associates

by ix_tab



Series: This Is What Love Looks Like [10]
Category: Professional Wrestling, 新日本プロレス | New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Genre: Character Study, Golden Lovers, M/M, brief mention of a past Kenny/Cody/Brandi interaction, but the rest of the BC still features, how to win friends and influence people, im only tagging characters who have speaking roles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-14 07:02:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15383283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ix_tab/pseuds/ix_tab
Summary: During the G1, Kota ponders his feelings and thoughts about the members of Bullet Club; this strange, rowdy, fractured group he's married into.Warning: small discussion about the subject of forced kissing in this fic.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As I said in the summary, forced kissing is mentioned at one point in this. Don't want anyone going in unprepared.
> 
> Also! There is a reference to a previous fic of mine in here, where Kota fucks Kenny while he wears the hat they stole from Naito. 
> 
> All my fic exists in the same shared universe, unless otherwise specified, but I thought I should clarify, lmao.
> 
> Title from Butterfingers "FIGJAM" (Fuck I'm Good, Just Ask Me).

**CHASE**

 

“I love Chase,” Kenny says, fondly, watching the man in question stretch in the hotel gym.

“Me too. What a phenomenal ass.” Kota watches Chase’s thick, strong thighs flex.

“Ibutan! He’s basically our son,” Kenny scolds him. Kota turns to him, and Kenny’s ears are pink.

“…Am I wrong here?”

“No, no. No. Best butt in the bullet club I always say…to myself, quietly. Bu-san, I’m so glad you are here.” Kenny leans into his side, and Kota wraps his arm around his waist. Makes a questioning noise near Kenny’s ear.

“It’s been a lonely time, not having anyone to talk boys with,” Kenny says, to Kota’s amusement, suppressing his laughter poorly.

“You talk boys with the bucks!”

“Well, I talk boys and they are supportive,” a tiny bit of real sadness there that Kota elbows him gently about.

But, aside from having a great ass, Chase is also Kota’s favourite of the bullet club. From the beginning, Chase stood there with them, even when it caused him grief.

When Kenny was in America, Kota had spent a lot of time with the friendly younger man, and it had been easy. He had been surprised, how easy.

In those early days of the schism, when he was not with Kenny, he’d felt a mishmash of emotions. He remembers thinking ' _oh so this is what it’s like to be Kenny. No wonder he doesn’t sleep.’_

But Kenny had been half a world away, out of his range, unable to help or be helped and Chase had been there to support him, through his wins and losses, through his impotent rage at seeing Kenny be forcibly kissed.

He was going to be grateful for that support for a long time.

And the boy has moves. Kota loves tagging, the dynamics of more bodies, more variables, more possibilities. More people to watch him fly, the chance to save his partner, the chance to get a few extra kicks in.

He and Chase worked smooth and easy, oiled by their shared connection with Kenny, but then building their own separate ways.

Solid foundation creating their own unique team. Something started as a stopgap had become a blossoming friendship, and Kota values that just as much as anything found in the ring.

Kota hopes he’s somewhere close by when Chase eventually drops Okada on his head.

“You guys wanna drop by my room later? Finally catch the PUBG bug?” Chase says, not batting an eye at them being publicly affectionate.

Kota had felt Kenny’s instinctual flinch, trying to put space between them, and he held on. Kenny’s breath is still quicker then it had been a second ago.

Kota doesn’t know exactly how, but he’s going to try and help Kenny believe that people won’t automatically try to harm them.

“We’ll take a raincheck, my dude. But text if you’re hungry later on, we can grab something to eat together?” Kenny says, and Chase laughs, fistbumps the pair of them and heads off.

“What was that about? If you want to play games with him, I have a phone, I can entertain myself,” Kota asks, curiously.

He’s not really interested in games that aren’t decades old, pixelated and sort of janky but its never bothered him to sit with Kenny, absorbing his radiant energy as he plays.

“Nah I’m not playing PUBG with Chase. I love the guy, but still.”

“Why not?”

“It’s just him and Sabin swearing on headsets as they put up with playing against 14 year olds.” Kenny giggles at the thought.

He’s back to pressing against Kota’s side by himself, removed from his nervous self protective urge. Kota kisses him briefly on the neck, treasuring the little sigh he earns.

“Our son’s playing videogames, lets go be old people and nap, Ibutan,” Kenny suggests. Kota lets himself be guided out of the gym.

“I want to say, no let’s go shopping, lets train more, but last night’s bed was awful. A nap sounds good right now. What’s happening to me?”

“Aging before my very eyes. A tragedy to watch my beloved Bu-san wither away into greying ash,” Kenny says, and squeaks when Kota squeezes him firmly around the waist.

“Please. You’re beautiful, you are resplendent. You know that. And you’re tired and a bit sore. It’s to be expected. Don’t be so dramatic!”

“I’m dramatic!?” Kota half laughs, half growls. He takes Kenny’s hand and they walk down the stairs, just to take the chance to make out in a darkened stairwell.

It’s revitalising.

 

**PAGE**

 

Kota doesn’t really know exactly what do with Page, and it’s comforting that Kenny is struggling as well.

 _It’s hard_ , he thinks, _because I see parts of me in him_. Not on a personal level, but on what they can do. He doesn’t know if Page is a playful man, but he’s seen him serious and it left an impression.

But it seems a bit sad to him if neither he and Kenny could bond with Page on nothing but a physical level.

He might be making excuses for willful bad behaviour, but he looks at Page’s moves against him and wonders if they would have happened without Cody pulling the strings.

On the other hand, it had been Page holding Kenny still for Cody’s chair. Both he and Kenny find it easier to forgive slights to themselves then to one another.

Still, if he never tries then there’s no room for growth.

And he made the choice.

Kenny would have never asked him to be part of this messy, wild endeavour if he wasn’t willing, if he didn’t see the potential for them all.

It’s coming out to make the save for Page that gives him an in.

He looks at Page, hurt and lost and he’s young. He’s a decade younger then Kota, and looks younger, sprawled out in the ring.

Kenny is angry and protective, at Page’s waist, ready to shield him if needed. Kota just looks at Page’s handsome, devastated face, and makes an active decision.

He’s going to try.

After the event, after it all, after Kota fucked the breath out of an exhausted Kenny wearing Naito’s hat in a dirty corner of the venue, Page and Chase come find them.

Chase jogs off, on the hunt for Kenny, who was, Kota hoped, finding a way to give Naito’s hat back without scandal and Kota is left there, standing with Page.

It’s supremely awkward. But Kota is determined to move through it. Surprising him, Page makes the first move.

“Uh, thank you. For tonight. For helping.” Page says clearly. Kota is grateful for Page not talking to him like he was a child or for assuming he understood everything.

He understands Kenny’s English the best. And there is a lilt to Page’s speech he finds appealing, because it was one Chase shared.

He reaches out his hands and takes Page’s in them, clasping them briefly.

“No problem. Any time,” Kota says firmly, watching Page’s young, sad face briefly pick up.

Chase comes back with a shirtless, triumphant looking Kenny and Page looks askance at the teeth marks clearly visible on Kenny’s neck.

“I’m guessin those aren’t your handiwork,” Page says to Chase who rolls his eyes.

“Who knows how they got there. A mystery. A miracle,” Kenny says, shades of his stage voice ringing out.

Kota watches Kenny droop a little, then take a breath, and he crosses over to stand next to Kota, to tangle their fingers together.

Outwardly, Kenny betrays nothing. Solid body posture, not shrinking away. Inwardly, Kota knows Kenny is shaking. Kota rubs their fingers against one another’s, and he catches a flicker of bright burning blue gaze directed at him, fear suppressed.

“Come on, everyone’s waiting for us,” Page says after a moment, tension dissipating into the ether.

Chase gives Kenny shit for being shirtless, and Page joins in, tentatively. Kota laughs at Kenny’s tone, amused and defensive.

There’s something here. It’s not the same friendship with Chase. But maybe, in the future, after the G1 there will be room to move forward.

 

**YUJIRO**

 

“How’s it going, tagging with Yujiro?” Kenny asks, stealing Kota’s water and taking a sip. Kota doesn’t blink, just holds his hand up for the bottle back.

It’s been a hectic seven months since their reunion, and they’ve spent weeks apart but they have slipped easily into old routines like they never stopped.

Kota considers. It’s only been a few times now. Yujiro is a fun partner though. Like Chase brings out the dirty fighter in Kenny, Yujiro makes it easier for him to wiggle around.

He doesn’t want to always be that way, but sometimes? Good to let go, while also scouting his opponents.

“It’s good. I’d like to get to know him outside the ring. Does he go out much?” Kota asks. Kenny laughs, snags the water back.

“Bu-san, he’s the Tokyo Pimp. Of course he parties.”

Kota kicks Kenny in the shin, gently. House slippers aren’t really made for high impact.

“Okay, okay. I don’t really know, I’m not the out on the town guy. But we’ll go for a big family meal soon, and you can go wild,” Kenny says, fondly.

“You don’t have to set me up on playdates with your team mates, Kenny,” motioning for him for come back in arm’s reach. He pulls Kenny over into his lap, limbs akimbo.

Neither of them are the biggest men in the world, but the hotel armchair was not designed for even two small people.

After some slightly painful rearranging, Kenny sat cross legged on the floor, back resting against the base of the chair, between Kota’s legs.

Kota runs his hands over Kenny’s shoulders, rests his chin on Kenny’s head.

“I know. You make friends well. I just…I want you to be treated right.” Kenny could have hidden the tremble in his voice from anyone but him.

“Trust me. I’m not going to put with crap. And besides, I’d like to talk to Yujiro’s lady friend sometime. She seems very cool.”

“Pieter? Oh she’s super cool. So hot, so talented. And honestly, Bu-san? Me, Tama and Cody should just give up. Pieter should be the BC leader. Anyone who climb into a ring in those heels deserves it.”

Kota starts laughing and Kenny turns to his side to face him.

“I’m serious. Put any of us jerks in heels like that and we’d be on our asses. Tougher then any wrestler.”

Kota looks thoughtful, struck by an idea.

“I think you’d do well in heels. Maybe not as extreme as Pieter’s but still. You could actually be six foot tall,” waiting for the expected indignant squawk of his partner. He is rewarded.

“Ibutan, I’m tall,” Kenny sulks, while lying to himself and the universe. Kota kisses him on the head, wondering if he could get Yujiro to ask Pieter where she finds her gear.

 

**CODY**

 

Kota has a lot of feelings about Cody. A lot of loud, negative feelings. Anger isn’t enough, it encompasses so much more then that.

But he’d seen Cody make the decision to not hit Kenny with the chair. He’d seen him on the ramp at Dominion, looking longingly at them, knowing that whatever battle he thought he’d won, he’d lost the war.

And for a man who can nurse a grudge for years, Kenny also is shockingly fast to forgive.

In a strange way, Kota likes that Kenny spent so long thinking about him, subtweeting him. He matters to Kenny far more then a simple struggle for power in an ever splintered group.

“You don’t have to be ok with Cody. We are partners, not the same person. I want to believe he’s moved past it, that he’s gotten better. If you don’t, I understand, I support you.” Kenny reassures him, anxiously.

Sitting next to each other on a plane full of their fellow wrestlers is not the ideal place for this conversation but it is what it is.

Kota puts up a hand to interrupt Kenny’s nervous, too fast speech.

“If he has, if he’s willing to apologise and he doesn’t attempt even a little bit of that again, then I could think about at least not hating him. But I want an apology for me, for you as well. And I’d like Brandi to apologise to you too,” Kota says firmly, and Kenny takes a breath.

“You definitely deserve an apology. You got used as a weapon against me, and that’s…that’s the worst thing. I haven’t gotten past that.” Kenny says, not meeting Kota’s eyes. Kota scowls at the omission.

“And you are owed them too, Kenny.”

“…well…”

“Kenny!” Kota snaps, trying not to feel bad that Kenny flinches. “You were touched intimately without giving consent. They need to make amends with you. And no matter what fight was going on, this is outside that. This was unacceptable.” Kota tries to impress it on Kenny, who, Kota knows, has the urge to just push it aside.

That he’s prepared to fight for Kota’s apology while forsaking his own is not ok for Kota. He won’t be the idol that Kenny feels that he should sacrifice his self worth to.

Kota sighs, lifts the arm rest so they can hold hands out of sight. Kenny smiles at him, small but real. Not a front for something else. Kota will take it.

“I’m not saying that I wouldn’t like an apology but I don’t know…I set the ball in motion. They just took it to bad places.” Kenny shrugs, and Kota taps his knee, hard.

“You kissed her once, right? That’s messy but doesn’t give Cody the right to touch you like that, or for her to either,” Kota says, firmly. Kenny winces.

“It was a bit more complicated then that…”

Kota tunes out briefly, playing back the events of the year in his mind, Cody’s wild jealousy…he’s hit with the worst bolt of inspiration he’s had in his life.

“Kenny.”

“Bu-san.”

“Did you have,” Kota pauses, knowing the answer before the end of his question, “did you have a threesome with Cody and Brandi?”

Kenny flushes bright red and looks anywhere but Kota.

Kota brings both his hands to his own face to muffle whatever weird noise is trying to escape.

“It was just once and it was obviously a mistake but you know…” Kenny sounds sick with shame. Kota peels his hands away to see Kenny hunch in on himself.

Kota reaches over again, telegraphing his movement so Kenny can pull away if he needs to, and wraps a hand around one of Kenny’s wrists, running his thumb across the sensitive skin.

“I’m not judging you for that. It’s just…what was one of the first things you told me, years ago when we first started dating?”

Kenny sighs so loudly that they attract a few curious glances from their fellow passengers.

“I told you that I’d bad experiences after sleeping with straight men. They got weird about it all, it was awkward, and I ended up miserable.” Kenny still won’t look at him properly.

“And what happened here?”

“…I had a bad experience after sleeping with a straight man. And his wife.” Kenny doesn’t pull away from him, but he sounds like he wants to dissolve.

Kota gives him an affectionate squeeze and finally Kenny faces him again, searching for judgement that isn’t there.

“ You aren't to blame for that, by the way. If anything, I’m more angry at them, now. But I just…I want you to care for yourself more. Protect your tender heart a little bit, Kenny-tan,” Kota says softly.

He takes a chance, always willing to risk everything for Kenny, their bodies blocking the view from other people and brings Kenny’s hand to his mouth, giving him the gentlest kiss he can.

Kenny’s eyes darken, the corner of his mouth twitches.

“Exhibitionist.”

“How could you accuse me so baselessly?” Kota lets their hands drop again, letting himself smile.

He’s spent too much of his valuable time being angry and miserable about the Rhodes’.

“Thank you. Just…thank you for everything. For being you,” Kenny murmurs, leaning against him.

“Who else would I be?” Kota asks, and with a mental middle finger to everyone around them, puts his arm around Kenny.

Kenny goes to him, rests his face against his shoulder, heedless of any stares they garner. Kota catches all of the wandering eyes and looks back, unflinching.

He bares his teeth, a smile that is a threat. No one tries to hold his gaze.

Let anyone try. Let anyone try to touch them, and he will rend them limb from goddamn limb.

 

**TAMA, TANGA, FALE**

 

Kota dismisses the anger he’s feeling as unimportant. He can deal with that, process that later.

Right now, Kenny’s pale face and limp are his priority.

After they get away from the staff, the rest of their group, which takes, in his opinion, a ludicrous amount of time, Kota gets a chance to have a quiet moment with Kenny.

“Are you okay?” He asks, stupid question but what else is there. Kenny is honest enough, vulnerable enough to shake his head no.

Kota thinks about the three men holding the chair around Kenny’s neck, English screamed at him that he hadn’t even bothered to translate in his head because Kenny was being held up like a sacrificial lamb.

And he thought about these men, who he hadn’t gotten a chance to know properly, but he’d shared meals with, tagged with, enjoyed his time with and thought, _maybe, if they can all just calm down, they can get back together_.

He doesn’t have those thoughts now.

“What was Tama shouting at you?” He asks, remembering a moment in the match, before it all went to hell.

“What time? We didn’t really do anything but shout.” Kenny says, softly. It’s an unnatural quiet for him. Kota hates that its back there in his tone.

“He was saying something about you being for him? I didn’t catch it.”

“Oh yeah. He said that he and I could have been something special,” Kenny answers and sounds sadder, if it were possible.

Kota throws caution to the wind, hugs his bruised partner with all his care, his strength.

Kenny melts into him, like his strings have been cut, like the only thing keeping him from crumpling to the ground is contact with Kota.

“You’re catnip for straight boys, Kenny," Kota jokes, knowing that right now, real sympathy could set off something dark and painful within his partner.

“Yeah. Everyone wants a piece of Omega,” Kenny sighs, but sounds a little less dead.

Kota will take it.

“What is it Fale keeps saying? Fuck em? Fuck em. You’re mine.” Kenny’s horrified little laugh at Kota and then, the way he pulls himself back enough to return the embrace fill Kota with hope. 

No matter how hard they are hit, they are going to bounce back, stronger, better then anyone else could dream of.

“I’m yours, Ibutan.”


	2. Well That's Just Innapropriate

**MARTY**

Kenny closes the skype call between him and Marty and Kota feels himself grimace. He doesn’t mean to but its there.

Kenny catches it, because of course he does. Sometimes Kota resents the stupidly easily way they fell back into sync.

If they both hadn’t spent the years apart creeping on each others movements then maybe, just maybe they would have had more of a drawn out reconnection.

“Something wrong?” Kenny asks, gently. Kota feels irritated with that as well.

“I just…I don’t know how I feel about Marty,” he says, realising the source of annoyance as the words tumble out of his mouth.

Kenny looks surprised, and Kota finds that he himself is surprised. He hadn’t put much thought into it, before this. Or maybe he was just kidding himself.

“In what way? I guess I’m surprised at that, because you’ve come around on Page, and he was…he was pretty much Cody’s second hand man during all the mess,” Kenny says carefully.

Kota considers. It’s true, all of it. There’s just something earnest about Page that he likes, that he believes can be less reactionary. 

“That’s fair. I think its that, I think it’s that I spent a lot of time hearing how he’d been handpicked by you, and his reaction when we came back together. He was unpleasant to deal with.”

Kota is turning it around in his mind. He didn’t have a problem with the man as a performer. And he’d watched Marty and Kenny tag together, and it was fun and silly and dirty. 

So what was sticking in his throat so bad?

He thinks back about Marty demanding to know why Kenny had picked him, the way he’d exploded. And further back to last year, Kenny cute, fluttering his eyes for the camera in his costume, and Marty kissing him.

Huh.

“I think I’m jealous?” Kota says incredulously and Kenny nearly falls off the hotel bed.

“What? I? Kota, Ibutan, oh my god. I don’t even know where to begin. Um.” Kenny can’t seem to string a sentence together, and Kota can’t blame him. He’s shocked at himself too.

“He had you. I was stuck behind, just watching you, wanting and they all had you. He had you, and it wasn’t like the Bucks. I knew they were your brothers, but Marty? He had this feeling about him. That he wanted your attention. That he thought he deserved it. And he was so angry when he lost it.”

Kenny sags a little but nods. Its not new ground to discuss, but it’s the first time Kota has pieced together all the little segments.

“Another spurned ex I have to deal with, Kenny?” Kota jokes, and Kenny, thankfully, laughs.

“God. Ibutan, please.” They both trail off into silence, considering their own thoughts.

Kota doesn’t like feeling jealous. An ugly emotion that he does not have huge amount of experience dealing with.

When he thinks about shortcomings, he thinks about his own. When he envies people, its their skills, of so many different types that he wishes he had.

Being jealous of a man who did not have anything like he did, would never, has never? It makes no sense. But its what he’s feeling.

Maybe its, maybe its him channeling some of his lingering resentment of the bullet club members he likes, at a person he has yet to really feel anything for.

He shrugs it off, shakes himself. 

Takes two steps towards Kenny and then drops down onto his knees so he can be eye level with him. Reconsiders his position and shuffles forward on the rough hotel carpet.

Kenny is laughing at him, as he gives himself mild carpet burn. He grabs for Kenny and Kenny slides off the bed, onto his own knees, and they reach out, mirror images of one another, encasing each other in a tangle of two pairs of arms.

Kenny’s head tilts towards his shoulder.

“I’m sorry you feel this way. If there’s something that I’m doing or not doing, and it will help you, I will change it up. You’re tagging with him, working with him soon. I want to be at least bearable for you,” Kenny offers. 

Kota thinks. There isn’t really anything for Kenny to do for him, other then not kiss the other man again. Which doesn’t seem like a pressing concern.

“No, it’s fine. It’s good. I’ll focus on what I do like about him, and if we have problems, you can come translate for us and it will be really awkward.”

Kenny huffs another laugh into his shoulder.

It’s reassuring, how they can both laugh at the sheer magnitude of high drama they’ve been in the centre of, for an exhausting amount of time.

“What do you like about him, Bu-san?” Kenny asks, curiously, not moving from their messy embrace. Kota shuffles them a bit, so Kenny isn’t leaning weight on his injured leg.

“I like his bird thing.”

“Really? Huh. I mean, that’s cool, I just didn’t expect it.”

Kota shrugs, as well as he can.

“Yeah. It’s cute. The fans like it too. It’s fun to watch them do the little bird call, you know the ‘woop woop’. I think that’s cute.” Kenny topples out of Kota’s arms, wheezing for breath.

“Ibushi Kota, light of my heart, love of my life, you are amazing. Please tell Marty, it will make such a difference.” Kenny says, endlessly fond, crumpled in a heap on the carpet.

Kota nods. He wants to shift this weird jealousy, that has no real basis in reality. He wants to give Marty a chance to be something other then an annoyance, he wants to compete with all his heart and head in the right place.

Most importantly, he wants to be honest with himself. He hadn’t looked at the jealousy before, out of sight, out of mind. There’s just so much to think about! He will worry about Marty when the time comes.

 

**THE YOUNG BUCKS**

 

The boring part of tour has hit early for Kota, and it’s partially in self defence from his own brain. Better to be bored, then upset, and he is upset about Kenny limping, wincing in pain in private and then pasting on his professional face.

But he’s sick of training, of interacting with everyone. He wants Kenny around all the time and he will take everyone else in small doses.

Tv and youtube are frustrating, reading holds no appeal and he can’t pay attention long enough to focus on games.

The event is draining him and he’s over it.

So he’s making his own fun.

Kenny interacts more with everyone else, and Kota’s new favourite game is waiting until Kenny was taking a sip or had a mouthful of food and asking him if he was interested in any of the long list of potential sex acts he’d been compiling.

The internet really is a magical place, he thinks, checking his phone.

He waited until Kenny was around the English only speakers. He didn’t need Sanada to hear him ask Kenny about glory holes.

He’d started yesterday, walking up to Kenny as he was laughing with Chase, leaning heavily on a wall. He’d touched Kenny’s waist to get his attention and then said softly,

“What do you think about nipple clamps?” and Kenny had inhaled the water he’d been drinking.

“Bu-san what the hell?”

“Just wanted to know what you thought,” Kota had said, carefully keeping a blank face. Kenny’s eyes had been wide enough to see the whites.

“Uh…I guess I’m interested but like…right now? We can’t do anything, the marks would show up?”

“No, just storing the information for later,” Kota had said, still even and cheerful in his tone, saying a quick farewell to Chase, leaving Kenny to deal with whatever was happening, the fallout.

He’d surprised Kenny twice since then.

“Exhibitionism?”

“Please. I think we both knew that was a thing for both of us, before we even knew the other existed.” Kenny said, glaring at him after coughing up part of a protein bar.

Half an hour later he found Kenny looking defeated by the heat, leaning against a vending machine.

“Choking?”

“Really? Jesus, Bu-san. Ummm…No. I know too much about how dangerous it is.” Kenny looks apologetic and weirded out over the rim of the can of coffee he’s also drinking.

Kota thinks.

“Collaring then? I mean, it wouldn’t really cut off air, but it might be restricting…” He trails off as Kenny’s eyes glaze over.

“I’m marking that down as a ‘yes’,” he says smugly and Kenny shakes it off, adjusts himself subtly and rolls his eyes.

“Bu-san, please leave.”

“Fine, but I’ll be back,” and Kota walks out, head held high, brain ticking over the concept of Kenny wearing a thick collar, kneeling at his feet.

***

He comes back to Kenny’s room later on. It’s cute, in an awful way, that the company thinks they still need to book them separate rooms.

He knows they are still in favour with management because both of them have double beds.

He’s been thinking about sex because his body is exhausted and Kenny keeps limping as soon as they are out of sight of other people. He’s thinking about sex because the emotions the tour is bringing up are too deep to cope with.

He wants to think about bodies and movement and sweat, because he is exhausted by everyone, including himself.

He walks in on Kenny back on his laptop, speaking English. It’s not Marty on the other end, its the excited voices of the Jackson brothers. Kota smiles at Kenny, and Kenny looks back at him, before going back to his conversation.

Kota continues to smile, realising that Kenny is complaining about him and the Bucks are humoring him. He’s picking up every 8th word but he knows Kenny’s whine.

He’s too far gone. He even finds Kenny’s whining endearing. Ridiculous.

“You guys need to get here sooner, or I’m going to have to smother my partner. It’s been three days and he won’t stop it. I had to have a conversation with Juice that he derailed by asking me if I was interested in fisting.”

Nick makes a noise that Kota is fascinated by, and Matt lets out a sigh like a deflating ballon.

“Kenny,” Matt says, firmly. “We love you. You are our brother. We love Ibushi. He’s become family. Heck, I would walk you down the aisle and give you away-”

Matt ignores Kenny’s amused cry of “I have parents!”

“You are both family, and I cannot, cannot hear about your sex life. And that is why.” Nick just nods in agreement. Kenny crosses his arms, but can’t hide that he’s kind of touched.

Kota crosses over the room to sit with him, and both of the brothers light up to see him. It’s nice. They are nice.

Of all the bullet club, the bucks are the ones that Kota knew mattered most. The pain and separation and sheer joy when they and Kenny reunited.

He’d been so frustrated with them, more angry with them then even Cody, because how could they of all people leave Kenny? Messy. Irritating.

He had changed his thoughts more and more as he’d fought them. So often he learns people when beside them or against them in the ring.

He’d had an intellectual admiration for their smoothness, but being against it had been a rush, and he’d ridden it through a concussion, through Kenny’s distress.

He had realised at that time, that if the bucks were genuine, he’d want to be their friends. And not just because they loved Kenny, and he loved them.

There was something there, something he could see. It got lost after supercard, Kenny’s distress feeding his own unresolved anger.

But over time it came back, and when it had hit the point of Kenny looking miserably at a box for weeks, he knew that it was time to test it. To test how genuine this all was.

Looking at the stupid t shirts, he’d broken down into laughter, almost tears in the gym. Merchandise to show love. It was extremely true to character.

Now, he saw the other men as allies. He’d moved through the frustration, though it would probably linger now and then. They had been so desperate to make amends with him especially, it had been endearing.

“Kenny, translate for us, and don’t leave bits out, we’ll know,” Nick said, to Kenny’s agreeable nod.

“How is he? He says he’s fine,” Nick asked without preamble. Kenny winced, but translated faithfully. Kota thought.

“He’s not fine. He’s struggling to put weight on his leg, it’s wrapped in padding and he’s taking the amount of painkillers its safe to, going into a match.”

Kota looked at Kenny, who shrunk down. He watched the bucks body language as Kenny relaid the information. They were indignant, annoyed, and concerned. He liked that. That was an appropriate response to Kenny’s bravado.

“And you? Are you ok? I’ve seen the gif of that insane moonsault you did about a hundred times on twitter. Don’t die before we get there,” Matt asks.

Kenny seems much happier to translate that. _You little hypocrite_ , Kota thinks, laughing internally.

“I’m ok for now. Overheated though, all the time. It feels like my energy’s being sapped and nothing I can do is quite bringing it back. I’m trying to take care of myself, and him. We aren’t great at it,” Kota admits. 

Kenny reaches out to hold his hand as he translates, and Nick’s brow furrows.

It strikes Kota, how parental both brothers are towards Kenny, and now him. Matt doubled down, the older brother to Nick as well. Its so strange to think, these men, several years younger then him and Kenny are actual fathers.

He’s met their children via videochat. Sweet children, in a way that made his heart ache. Hearing them call Kenny ‘uncle’ had brought feelings to the fore that he needed to examine when this endless grind of a tournament was over.

Honestly, he shocked himself with what a comfort it was to see them, to hear them joke with Kenny. Instead of just his and Kenny’s bubble, intense and sometimes overwhelming, there were layers. And the bucks rested outside of that first layer.

It had been a while since he’d added new friends to his circle, and the bucks had seemed like a very unlikely choice at the beginning, these loud,very talented, but tiresome Americans who broke Kenny’s heart.

Perhaps Kenny has cursed him, because he’s come to be endeared by them too. Ridiculous, all of them, including himself.

He remembers holding Kenny aloft with the Bucks and knowing in that moment, that they had become a force to be reckoned with. Amazing. Preposterous.

It continues to surprise him, how easy it was to be a part of their little group within a group within a group. He’d spent so much time irritated with inter faction politics and now he was in the thick of it.

But it seemed to be worth it, and it wasn’t just because of Kenny.

They say goodbye to the bucks and Kenny strips down to his underwear, sweat still beading on him, even in the air conditioning. The weather is the real enemy here, the thing they are all going to have to compete with on the tour.

Kota follows suit, and Kenny turns to face him. It’s too hot to touch, but it doesn’t stop either of them.

“Please stop jump scaring me with sex. It’s funny, I know, I keep laughing about it but I have to deal with Juice and I’m going to be thinking about his face as you said ‘fisting’ for the rest of my life.”

Kota laughs softly.

“That was my real mistake. If anyone was going to pick up Japanese purely for sex, it’s Juice. I’m sorry. I’ve been going out of my mind. I just..I want to think about you, dazed with what I do to you, not pale and sick with pain.”

Kenny presses closer.

“It’s ok. It’s ok. The heat will break, my leg will heal and you can hang me from hooks or chain me up in the shower, or hold my hand in TGI Fridays afterwards. Whatever your deviant mind can cook up,” Kenny says, kissing him on the collarbone. 

Kenny’s warm mouth is cooler then his own skin.

“I’m about ready to chain myself up in the shower,” Kota says, ruefully. Kenny doesn’t laugh at that shared sentiment.

“It’s also…Kenny-tan, I hate it. I hate that we are going to face each other and as soon as any match I have ends, all I’m thinking about is ours. I keep saying one day at a time, but how can it be?” 

“We can only do our best, Ibutan. I’m there with you. I feel it too. Part of me can’t wait, lots of me wishes it wasn’t happening. There’s no one else like you, for a partner or an opponent.”

Kota rolls on top of him, grinds him down through their underwear. It’s like being a teenager, nervous energy filling him, but the stickiness of heat kills it.

“This is why you’ve been so on edge and asking me about suspension. Summer is killing our sex life,” Kenny says, mournfully.

“…Wanna blow me in the shower?” Kota asks hopefully. Kenny laughs and agrees easily. He winces as they separate and Kota holds all his weight as they ease their way into the bathroom.

The tiles are cool relief.

“I’m glad the bucks will be here soon,” Kota says, and Kenny bats his hands away for a second.

“Matt was right, no sex talk and them. I’m adding that to the rules.”

“Fine. I just…someone needs to be there for you if I can’t.” Kota says quietly, and then is annoyed at himself for killing the mood they’ve been trying to cultivate.

Kenny drops to his knees gracefully, for a man who has been brought to tears putting on running shoes in the past day.

“Someone needs to be there for you, too. I’m grateful that you consider them options. I hate thinking about you alone.”

Kota holds Kenny’s head in his hands, running a thumb under his chin, feeling his own thigh muscles twitch as Kenny turns to take the thumb into his mouth.

Cliche porn move it may be, but it never fails to get him. Kenny’s mouth gets to him.

“I have you. And now I have them all. I don’t think I’ve ever been less alone in my life,” Kota says. Kenny doesn’t try to reply, but lets Kota’s thumb out of his mouth with theatric flair. 

“I won’t be alone, no matter what,” Kota says, and its another epiphany moment.

For better or worse, in sickness and health, he’d found his way into this strange family. It wasn’t the burden he’d thought, at first.

If he was honest, there was joy. And that might be enough to get him through the rest of the night, the rest of the grind of bodies and blows and leaps.

It might be enough to help him live after he and Kenny meet.They were going to survive, and despite it all, his new found family, disjointed, maddening and argumentative as it is, could be the key.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we are done, son!
> 
> The G1 is an endless font of inspiration, as is all the support I've gotten from you all, and continue to get. 
> 
> Thank you!


End file.
